Sean Neprud

What the 101 Woodblock Series Means

November 11th, 2009 by admin

Hey –

I recorded this audio presentation for you to check out. I want to let you know what this 101 Woodblock Series is all about, and what it means to me.

I don’t want a shroud of mystery around my art, I want you to know what the deal is.

You can play the audio in this little doohickey below, it is only about 8 or 9 minutes long. I was drinking coffee while I recorded this, so feel free to pour yourself a cup of coffee while listening.

[EDIT: This audio is no longer available]

As I mentioned in the audio, CLICK HERE to see the online gallery[LINK REMOVED] of 101 Woodblock Series prints.

Tags: 101
Posted in Printmaking | No Comments »

A print is not necessarily a Print

November 11th, 2009 by Sean

The word “print” can mean a couple different things. It is frustrating to me when I tell people that I make prints and they misunderstand, and I think it has led to a fair bit of confusion for the average art connoisseur.

A “print” can be:

A hand created and printed piece of artwork, created either as a monotype, relief print, intaglio, or lithograph
A high quality reproduction of a work of art using photographic and mechanical means. These are also sometimes called “lithograph”
A poster

I’m going to go a little in depth into each one and explain the difference.

Handprinted Art Prints

These types of prints are drawn on the printing element by hand, inked by hand, and hand printed or run through a manual printing press. The main methods used to print these types of prints are monotype, relief (ie. woodblock), Intaglio (or etching), and lithography. Silkscreen can be included in this list, though silkscreen seems to be more widely used for craft rather than art.

Each print made by these methods is an original work of art. In fact, there is no “original” to speak of, because no image is being reproduced. The image is being produced for the first time with the printing elements (the plates, block, stones, etc), it is just being produced a number of times.

When people refer to Fine Art Printmaking, it is this type of printmaking that they refer to. Since these prints are original art, these types of prints maintain and increase in value over time. These are the type of prints that investors and collectors purchase.

This type of Printmade Fine Art is the type of prints that I make and sell here on BDD.

High Quality Reproductions

These type of prints are often referred to as a “limited edition Lithograph” or a Giclée print. These are high quality reproductions of an original work of art. The original art is created, and then photographic and mechanical methods are used to reproduce it.

These prints will often be signed and numbered, and issued as a limited set, so these can be easily confused with Printmade Art prints. This gets more confusing because these are often referred to as “lithographs”. The tricky thing about this language is that pretty much everything is a lithograph. Newspapers and magazines are lithographs, they are just produced by industrial lithography, rather than hand-printed lithography.

These types of lithographs are not hand printed in the fine art sense, though there may be an operator working the printing press.

Sometimes these will be called Giclée prints. Giclée is essentially a really fancy ink jet printer. (And I mean really fancy. I’ve seen Giclée printer produce prints, and they look mighty nice.

Though these types of prints are often limited editions, they do not hold and increase their value as well as original printmade art. They may maintain some value, and increase in value, depending on the artist and the work, but they won’t be an investment like a hand printed art print.

Posters

We all know about these kind of prints. These are the type that we hung in our college dorm room, to show off our appreciation for Van Gogh or Monet. These are the type of print that you will get at Museum gift shops or stores that sell art prints.

These prints are a great way to be able to look at your favorite work of art. Certainly, I know that I won’t ever own a Manet or Renoir painting, so this type of poster would be the appropriate way to have this art in my apartment.

These types of prints are not signed and numbered. They are mass produced, and are a consumable good. They are pretty, but they are not original art.

Tags: Giclee, Lithography, Poster, Print
Posted in Printmaking | 2 Comments »

101 Woodblock Series Partial Gallery

November 10th, 2009 by admin

Each print is printed on approximately 11″x15″ paper. The image size is 9″x12″.

101 Woodblock Series - Number 18

101 Woodblock Series - Number 44

101 Woodblock Series - Number 47

101 Woodblock Series - Number 49

101 Woodblock Series - Number 50

101 Woodblock Series - Number 52

101 Woodblock Series - Number 53

101 Woodblock Series - Number 55

101 Woodblock Series - Number 56

101 Woodblock Series - Number 58

101 Woodblock Series - Number 65

101 Woodblock Series - Number 66

101 Woodblock Series - Number 68

101 Woodblock Series - Number 72

101 Woodblock Series - Number 78

101 Woodblock Series - Number 79

101 Woodblock Series - Number 80

101 Woodblock Series - Number 84

101 Woodblock Series - Number 88

101 Woodblock Series - Number 90

101 Woodblock Series - Number 94

101 Woodblock Series - Number 97

101 Woodblock Series - Number 99

101 Woodblock Series - Number 100

Tags: 101
Posted in Printmaking | No Comments »

The continuing saga of Block 5

November 9th, 2009 by Sean

I’ve noticed something about a lot of my blog posts. At the end of the posts, I say I am gonna continue in the next posts and write about the next part of the subject. Then I never really write that next post. I’m kinda flaky like that.

But not today!

It’s a beautiful Monday morning, I’ve got some delicious white plums cut up, trucks are falling off the bay bridge, and my cup of coffee is almost done brewing. Time to continue the saga of Block 5, the coolest linoleum block ever to be made!

So I finished up the start of the story of Block 5 with the block completely carved. As I was carving the block, I realized that I would like another block to print to add some color to this block. This requires transferring the image from Block 5, the line art, to another block.

To do this, I printed block 5 on a sheet of mylar, as shown below:

The block is printed on mylar to transfer the image

Mylar is a thin, but rigid plastic material. The ink prints onto the mylar well, because it has a little roughness to the surface, but it does not soak in to the mylar, like ink does on paper. This is perfect for transferring images from one block to another, because the ink does not dry, and stays right on the surface.

I take the sheet of mylar, and press it against the surface of block 6 to transfer the image.

Using the mylar, the image is transfered to a fresh block, Block 6

Since prints print backwards, I have to go through these two steps to get the image on tho the final block correctly. When I first printed block 5, it came out backwards on the mylar. When I press the mylar on block 6, it transfers the image backwards again. Double backwards, is, of course, forwards.

Printmaking Aside: This is pretty much what biog, industrial lithograph machines do, the kind that print magazines, newspapers, etc. The panel that is printed is on one roller, than there is another roller that the image gets printed on. This second roller then prints that ink on to the paper. By transferring the image twice, rather than once, the image comes out the way it looks on the block.

Back to block 6, now I have lines to use as a guide, and I carve up the block to print a flat color behind the line art. Here is block 6 after it has been carved and the ink cleaned up:

Block 6 is carved and ready to print

So now I’ve got these two blocks. What to do with them. What to do…

Here’s how Block 5 and Block 6 look printed together:

Block 5 and 6 printed (click for larger)

In the top left corner you will notice some pencil marks. I drew these on the block when I was printing the first block on the paper so that I would know where to line up the second block. It is a pretty crude system, but it worked fairly well. I only lost one print over the weekend to poor print alignment.

Now the fun begins. I combine this block with some of my other blocks to make some woodblock prints. Here’s a few of the completed prints I finished this weekend that involve Block 5 and Block 6:

Block 5 and 6 were used as background for a previous block in this print (click for larger)

I like how the blue horizontal bands extend beyond the image area (click for larger)

Since it is autumn (supposedly), here's something in brown (click for larger)

If you want on the inside list for the release of these prints, sign up for the Bad Deacon Design newsletter by clicking here.

Tags: 101, Block 5, Block 6, Linoleum Block, Printmaking
Posted in Printmaking | 1 Comment »

I can’t get no satisfaction

November 9th, 2009 by Sean

I’m sitting here in my apartment, eating dinner and watching some TV to relax on Sunday night. I’ve been working a lot this weekend. It’s actually been all work. I worked till midnight Friday on a run of prints, woke up Saturday, and headed over to Dan’s house (my former roommate) to work on a new demo for our band.

I had a little powwow with Dr. WordPress afterwards, and we talked business plans and such. Got home Saturday night, printed up another run on my prints, and got to sleep.

I cleaned up my apartment today (it needed it), printed yet another run of prints, just a few today, an additional run on about 10 prints. I’ve been carving a woodblock for a few hours, and that brings me to where I am at the beginning of this post, dinner and TV.

I just looked over at this block I carved this afternoon, and I know I am gonna print it tonight.

And I won’t be satisfied.

I know artists are always self critical. Yesterday, with Dan, we were listening back to one of the takes we recorded. He mentioned that he messed up his drums a few times, but I didn’t hear it. He was far more critical of his craft than I was, because he was closer ot it.

This is a plague that infects a lot of artists, from what I have noyticed. I know I have it.

Pulling that first print off the block is exciting, but once it is hanging to dry, I start to see all the flaws. I see every misstep with my carving knife, how the color would look better if it was a shade different, the uneven pressure I put on the block when I printed it, making the final ink coverage inconsistent, or the lack of balance in the overall image.

I can’t get no satisfaction from my work.

When I say this, I hear the song in my head, except I hear the version by Devo, rather than the original version by the Stones.

Actually, I hear that version now, since I threw on Q: Are We Not Men? onto the speakers.

Usually I would sit around and stew in my dissatisfaction with what I am making, but instead I think I can address it by writing up this post and letting you sit there and read about how art is such a frustrating endeavor.

I think that the frustration that I feel with the art I make is the entire point.

If I could make the perfect print, then I wouldn’t need to make any others, I would have “accomplished the goal”.

Creating a work of art may be a goal in some respects, after all, I want to make art, give you an inside view of what it is about, and get it in to the hands of you folks. That certainly is a goal.

The entire reason I make art, however, is a process. I could be making tons of other things that might be far more profitable than art, but art is what I like to do. I’ll just have to work ten times harder to get rich off of my art.

The process of creating has meaning to me, and that process wouldn’t be important if I was satisfied with everything I do. I guess that lack of satisfaction makes it worth doing.

Anyway, back to dinner and Devo.

Are we not men?

We are Deacon.

Posted in Other Stuff | 1 Comment »

Inside the Birth of a Block

November 6th, 2009 by Sean

Sometimes it all begins with a small sketch

I like to give you an inside look at how I create woodblock prints. To that end, I present The Birth of Block 5.

Block 5 is another block used to make the 101 Woodblock Series. I number all of the blocks that I make, just because, well, I like a nice stack of numbered blocks. This block is the fifth block I’ve carved for the series of prints, with quite a few blocks left to go. Block 6 and 7 have been carved since I finished this block.

Like most of my good ideas, this one started out as a little sketch doodle on a notepad. I have a lot of note pads laying around at my desks, because I know that I have a tendency to forget stuff. Notes and lists are a vital tool for me.

I often get an idea when I am writing down notes, and doodle it down on a sheet of note paper. On the left is my original doodle for the image that I eventually carve in to Block 5.

You can see some of the notes in the corner of this sketch, I actually have no idea what these notes mean. I guess I need to take better notes…

When I do quick sketches like this, I am not too worried about detail. What I am drawing is the overall image that I have in my head. I try to get the overall feel of the image, the balance, and the major elements down on this paper.

Next I graduated to a larger sketch pad, the results are below:

A larger concept sketch

I draw in blue pencil so that I can later go over the image with a regular pencil or a pen to darken up the image. I picked up this habit from comic book illustration. The pencils for each page are often done in blue pencil. Blue pencil does not reproduce in a photocopy machine, so when the page is inked and then copied to prepare it for color, the original pencils don’t show up.

I picked up this habit of working because I like how I am able to draw a light sketchy line, which I can then ignore or reinforce with a darker line as I refine the image.

Next I got out Block 5 and drew the image on the block in blue pencil again. When I had an image that I was happy with drawn in pencil, I went over the image in ink. Here is the partially inked block, you can see both the blue pencil and the ink drawing:

The design sketched in pencil, and partly finalized in ink

As I inked the image onto the block, I realized that I like the look of the ink drawing, and decided to carve the block so that it would have the look of a line drawing when it was printed. This was a change from my previous plan, which was for this block to print the flat shapes of the leaves.

I realized that I had done that before with some of my previous prints, so I decided to do something different with this block.

Another comment on this block’s image: one of the things that I was unsatisfied with on my previous prints was the how sparse the image felt. The previous images felt rather empty to me, and I wanted to create an image that was more abundant with growth, so to speak.

Finally, I sat down and started carving this block. Here is the partially carved block:

The block is partially carved

It turns out that carving a block so that it will replicate an ink drawing takes a long time. I spent around 10 hours carving this block. I had to be precise with my X-acto knife to follow the lines, to make sure the final carved line wasn’t too thick or too thin, and to make sure that the block was carved right.

One of the challenges of carving a linoleum block is that the material is not rigid. It is pretty flexible and soft. This makes it a little easier to carve than wood, but presents a problem of stability. I had to carve into the block at an angle, so that the linoleum base is bigger closer to the particle board that the linoleum is mounted on.

Each uncarved area of the block is like a little mountain sticking up off of the board surface. This is required to give each portion of linoleum stability, so it doesn’t get smashed and misshaped when I put pressure on it to transfer the ink from the block to the paper.

The result is that carving a block like this requires a lot of time and precision.

Finally, the block is finished:

The block is completely carved

10 hours and ten sore fingers later, the block is finished. At least I didn’t cut myself this time, I seem to be getting better at not doing that.

Next I’ll show how I transfer this image to other blocks, and what I carve to compliment this block.

Tags: 101, Printmaking, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 2 Comments »

Why Printmaking? (A Study in Polarity)

October 29th, 2009 by Sean

Why don’t I just paint, or draw, or sculpt, or something like that?

It might be easier, and less time consuming. I might be able to whip out art much quicker. I wouldn’t have to explain the difference between printmade original art and industrial produced prints of art (ie. posters).

I love printmaking because the process of creating the print is so relevant to the final product. Of course, the process of every type of art impacts the final work of art that you make. How the paint is manipulated on the canvas decides how the painting will look, how the metal or clay is moved, welded and joined decides how the sculpture will look.

With painting, drawing, and sculpture, the work done has a direct impact on the final result. Printmaking is a little more indirect. The artist carves a block of wood, which is arguably where the talent to create an image comes into play, but then that block is printed, which is more of a technical process than an artistic one.

The process of transferring the ink from a printing plate or block to paper is very technical. It requires precision and proper methods.

Printmaking requires two sides of me: the artist and the engineer.

The artist in me creates the image, decides how it will look, carves the block, decides what colors should be used, and what feeling or thought I want to put into the finished art.

The engineer takes over to figure out how to mix the inks, how transparent the ink should be, how to line up the multiple blocks so that the print registers well, how much pressure is required to transfer the ink, and how much drying time is required before the next layer of ink is applied.

Both parts of this process interest me, and engage me. In order to make a print, I have to engage my creative side, as well as my technical side, and so I feel much more balanced when creating prints.

Printmaking engages these two sides to me like no other method does. Painting, and even drawing to a degree, are much more of a purely creative endeavor for me, and my paintings tend to be more emotionally charged than my prints, because painting does not require the same balance of my different ways of thinking like printmaking does.

This makes a little more sense knowing that by day, I am an engineer. I am registered as a Professional Mechanical Engineer in California, and spend my days designing water treatment and utility systems.

My job is all technical all the time, so I need art to create that balance in my life between those two poles. As a printmaker, both of those poles have to work together to create my final product.

That’s why printmaking is such good stuff.

Tags: Engineering, Printmaking, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 1 Comment »

Inspiration, Perspiration, Motivation, and Grueling it out

October 28th, 2009 by Sean

How do you deal with a lack of motivation?

I know that my dreams of becoming an internet entrepreneur are going to require two things: work, and more work. Work in the morning, work at noon, work in the evening. Since I am weaving all of this work in with a busy day job, it is fairly tiring.

Motivation makes it easy to put in the 99% perspiration required. What do I do when motivation runs out?

For the last week or so, I had lost my motivation for my 101 Woodblock Series. I spent last weekend knowing I needed to crank out about 15 hours of work on this, yet I got nothing done. The motivation wasn’t there. I didn’t have that drive to get it done, and in its place was apathy towards the entire thing.

I think that it has hurt that I went cold turkey off of drinking coffee a little over one week ago. Coffee was largely my fuel, I drank a lot of it. It has been rough to get over the hump on this one. Though this talk of coffee is an extended aside from my main point, it gets to the heart of another point I will write about soon, the connection between physical well-being and emotional well being. I know deep down that I won’t make a million dollars on the internet if I am not physically healthy.

Back on track – last week, this lack of motivation caused me to miss my morning power hours. This set my whole day askew, since my day began with not following my own habits.

so when there is little chance that my motivation will kick in and take care of things, I have to rely on thing: Grueling it out.

Yesterday morning my alarm went off at 5:45, telling me to wake up and write. I had no idea what I was going to write, and this habit is new enough that I haven’t built that innate trust that the power hour will be productive, even when I don’t know how it will be productive.

So my alarm was ringing, and I was faced with a choice. I could reset my alarm for 6:45, and sleep another hour, or I could gruel it out and force myself to sit in front of the computer. Somehow, my willpower took over, and I did the latter.

I sat down with no idea what I would be writing about, and no real motivation to write about any specific topic. I started poking around my writing folder on my computer, and found a draft with just a few lines written that sparked something, and I knew what to write about. After I whipped out the first blog post in about 20 minutes, I had an idea for a second, and I whipped that one out too. I ended up with two blog posts written, edited, converted to HTML, and posted or scheduled to be posted within 45 minutes.

The main reason that I was able to get these two posts written was that I grueled it out and forced myself to sit in front of my computer. As I was sheepishly walking out of bed towards my desk, I remember thinking to myself that I had to do this, even if I just sat at my computer for 45 minutes and did nothing.

Those first 5 minutes sucked. When I was getting out of bed, cutting up a dish of fruit and pouring myself some juice, I was fighting with a part of saying that I could still go crawl in to bed for another 45 minutes. I didn’t have to be awake. Something happened once I began work, and it became a lot easier to follow through and get everything done.

Important lessons from yesterday morning:

If I wait until I feel like writing blog posts, copy, content, or whatever, I will never get anything done.
If I have a habit in place, I need to follow it, even when I don’t want to.
Genius may be 99% perspiration, but a lot of the time, it takes grueling it out to get to the point that you break a sweat.

Tags: Habits, Mornings, Motivation, Willpower
Posted in Other Stuff | 5 Comments »

Lessons From Blog World Expo: Quality Content Above All

October 27th, 2009 by Sean

I a weekend at Blog World Expo recently. The best way to describe it is as a conference and trade show for folks that create content and distribute it via the internet.

They like to call it “New Media”, but really it is just old media distributed in new ways.

There was a whole lot of talks given about how to make money by producing content on the internet, but one point was driven home more than any others: the importance of quality content.

Without quality content, readership, followers, subscribers, etc, just won’t come.

This point hit home for me, specifically as it relates to this site and my overall goals – fame, fortune, and glory through art.

Amazing content is not easy, and it does not come naturally. It takes hard work, and a lot of it.

Printing may be like riding a bike, but that first mile or so on a bike after ten years without riding is going to be a little shaky and wobbly. This is the reason for the 101 Woodblock Series.

It’s been a long time since I spent the majority of every day in the printmaking studio, knocking out lithograph after lithograph. The 101 Woodblock Series is my chance to get reacquainted with an old friend, and catch up over a long night of drinks and stories from the good ol’ days.

My goal for this series of prints is to make each one different, no two are alike. Each one requires thought and consideration to balance the image and the colors and decide what else is needed.

The result is that this series takes a lot longer than a standard woodblock edition, where each print is the same, and also that I am having that long night catching up, telling the old stories that we remember, and reacquainting ourselves with an old friendship.

In other words, I am forcing myself through a crash course of printmaking to re-learn the means and methods required to make beautiful art.

Of course, my work is your benefit, because when these are all done, I will be giving these out for a fraction of the real value. I want to celebrate this old friendship with printmaking by putting a piece of handmade artwork in your hands for less than the cost of a burger and a beer (my favorite meal).

If you’re not already signed up, head over to the 101 Woodblock Series page, and sign up for the newsletter for updates on the series, and notice of how to get one of these hotcakes into your hands.

Tags: 101, Art, Printmaking, Woodblock Print
Posted in Other Stuff | 1 Comment »

This Post Is Too Personal For A Title

October 20th, 2009 by Sean

I have a new habit of writing for an hour every morning. I’ve been struggling to write something this morning. I wrote, deleted, wrote, abandoned, and now, in frustration, am writing this.

Life has always felt like it takes a lot of work. Without constant, diligent work to stay on top of everything in my life, it quickly falls apart, and I am left in a river that ebbs and flows and takes me wherever it happens to turn.

Entropy is the scientific term for “things fall apart”, and my life feels like entropy in action. Constant work is needed to keep everything in place, or it will fall out and go its own direction.

The crazy thing is, when I start to feel like things are flying off every which way, and I am just struggling to reign it all in, I feel like I am the only person who has ever felt this way.

I’m the only one. Maybe other people have felt something similar to this, but I’m the only one that actually feels this way this much. It is my personal struggle.

(This, I have learned, is wrong. One of the little secrets of humanity is that the more and more something feels intense and personal, the more universal that feeling is)

Making art is one of the ways that I reign it all in. That is why I am making myself do this 101 Woodblock Series.

When I make art, I feel like that crazy river that bends, turns, and roars every which way… mellows out. The river widens, slows down, and the rapids disappear. I can think again, and more so, I can breath again. Life doesn’t feel as chaotic.

I don’t make art because I love to, I make art because I have to.

Tags: Entropy, Life
Posted in Other Stuff | 1 Comment »